For a long time, I stargazed without a telescope. Just me, the stars, my eyes, and a modest pair of binoculars. And honestly? That was enough. I learned the constellations, followed the moon, caught meteor showers, and just took in whatever the sky had to offer on a given night.
Then about 12 years ago, my in-laws gifted me a telescope. It wasn’t new—it was an older scope from the ’90s that my wife had originally bought for her stepdad. He barely used it, and eventually, it came my way. I got a good amount of use out of it, especially in the earlier years, and for a while it was my main stargazing companion.
But lately? It’s just been sitting there. And I’ve been sitting with that feeling.
Part of it is that I’ve been leaning more into astrophotography this past year. When I’m out shooting, it’s just easier to move between my camera, binoculars, and naked eyes than to wrangle the telescope into the mix. The setup, breakdown, and extra trip to the car make it a bit of a hassle, especially when everything else I need fits in one load.
But it’s not just the logistics—it’s the scope itself. It’s getting old. I’ve cleaned and maintained it a few times, but the mirrors are oxidizing. I replaced the secondary, but I haven’t had luck finding a replacement for the primary. At some point, I’d probably need to send it out to get refinished professionally.
The guide scope? It’s misaligned and has never been especially useful, so I end up aiming by looking down the tube like it’s a rifle. That’s… not great when you’re trying to land on something small or dim.
So lately I’ve been asking myself: what do I do with this thing?
Initially, I thought I had two choices:
Clean it, use it one more time for nostalgia’s sake, and then store it away.
Buckle down, fix what I can, and finally get serious about really learning to use it properly.
But the more I sit with it, the more options I realize I actually have:
Upgrade the mount: I could keep the optical tube, give it a good cleaning, and invest in a computerized mount. That might make the whole experience less frustrating and help me find objects faster. But that’s not a cheap fix—and I’d have to weigh that cost against just getting a new scope altogether.
Pass it down someday: Maybe I clean it, do a bit of upkeep, and then store it long-term with the idea that one day, it could go to my kids. There’s something kind of beautiful about the idea of passing it on—even if it’s not the best scope, it’s part of my astronomy story.
Just go back to basics: I could walk away from telescopes for now and go back to what I started with—binoculars and naked eye observations. There’s zero shame in that. A telescope isn’t a requirement to enjoy the night sky, and sometimes simple is better.
Honestly, I don’t know what I’ll decide yet. But I wanted to share this because I think it’s something a lot of amateur astronomers go through. We evolve. Our tools wear out. Our interests shift. And sometimes the gear we thought we’d always use starts to feel like a chore instead of a joy.
No matter what I end up doing, the sky’s still there—waiting.
Clear skies,
~Jedite83